LOS ANGELES — Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence is glad to reminisce about the plucky sitcom that survived years of time slot upheaval and a transplant from one network to another.
At this point, however, the discussion is akin to talking in the past tense about a hospital patient who is still working through the Jell-O course. In other words, Scrubs isn’t a goner yet.
ABC may yet decide to give the show, or some incarnation of it, a spot on the network’s 2009-10 schedule to be announced later this month.
After all, ABC did rescue Scrubs after NBC dropped it last year, and the sitcom is produced by ABC Studios.
So Lawrence devised a season-closer that also could serve as the show’s final curtain.
It’s an approach built around the departures of series star Zach Braff and Lawrence himself from the world of Sacred Heart Hospital.
“It’s my last year and Zach’s last year, so the finale is exactly what we would have written as a series finale. And if it goes forward, it’s still what we would have written as Zach’s finale,” Lawrence said.
A key question: What happens with erratic lovebirds J.D. (Braff) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke)?
Lawrence can imagine a ninth season for Scrubs, even if it loses cast members to other projects.
After all, the show was first pitched as a comic version of ER, able to accommodate new faces as the years and seasons passed.